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| Tikhvin Cemetery |
So, the day after being told I do absolutely nothing (which is not true - it's because two of our group have gone to Moscow with their relatives, and my landlady thinks I should be too, which is quite different to going by yourself - my relatives have no intention of coming out here. The opportunity has not yet arisen to be able to go there and back (16hours by train) over the stretch of a weekend, when you have work due in in the following days - my sleep pattern is bad enough without ruining it further, thanks. So having had a natter to dad (and the most childish of panic attacks - AHHH I WANT TO COME HOME), decided to visit the cemetery after a lesson today - because the lesson finished at just-gone-four o'clock, there's not an awful lot you can see in time of it closing (museums here close at about 6ish, the last tickets being sold an hour before closing time). I had not known that this was the burial place of Dostoevsky, among some of the most famous Russian composers. It's quite a bleak, shady cemetery (then again, I have never come out of a cemetery thinking it was bright and colourful) - morseo when you arrive there a little prior to five o'clock. And when you've gone by yourself - oo-er. Although I did not think it would be as bleak as it would soon become.
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| Mussorgsky's Grave |
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| Rimsky-Karsakov's Grave |
So, inside the cemetery, I saw the graves and headstones of famous musicians and painters, politicians and scientists. The cemetery is quite renowned in St Petersburg, though it's not very central. The grounds are solemn and silent, yet serene. The headstones are not something I've ever characteristically associate with gravestones (then again, there is probably not a technique exactly..- and I've never been to visit the graves of famous people), and the decoration is lovely - for example, the graves of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Karsakov (famous composers) are engraved with music score and golden musical notes, which I thought was quite touching. I might not even know the professions of some of the people here now, had they not been accompanied with illustrations and sculptures to depict what they had achieved in their lives. I liked this, because the fact that someone had spent a lot of time designing these just illustrates the pride that Russians have of their history - however grey and gruesome parts of its political past are, there is a sense of pride in their cultural side, its illustrations and sculptures meaning that their spirits and work will never be forgotten.
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| Dostoevsky's Grave |
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| Glinka's Grave |
Well, being the moron I am, I ended up getting locked in there, after seeing some Americans in there (asking for the best graves to see) - um, oops. So I text Jess (not sure why, since there's nothing she can do, but I freaked out - it's 6pm-ish, getting dark, starting to rain, I'm alone...I freak out at the prospect of sleeping in a graveyard. AND add to this that it's about 3 days before halloween - I don't believe that shit but never ruled it out...BUMS.
After calling Lyuda, trying to hold my tears back, she sorts it and the POLICE come to let me out! I nearly shat myself as I don't have my passport on me (if you don't have documents on you in Russia when requested, they can throw you in jail), but they were really nice about it - directing me back to the station, not implying I'm a moron....it was certainly an experience.
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| Tchaikovsky's Grave |
So, the day after being told I do absolutely nothing (which is not true - it's because two of our group have gone to Moscow with their relatives, and my landlady thinks I should be too, which is quite different to going by yourself - my relatives have no intention of coming out here. The opportunity has not yet arisen to be able to go there and back (16hours by train) over the stretch of a weekend, when you have work due in in the following days - my sleep pattern is bad enough without ruining it further, thanks. So having had a natter to dad (and the most childish of panic attacks - AHHH I WANT TO COME HOME), decided to visit the cemetery after a lesson today - because the lesson finished at just-gone-four o'clock, there's not an awful lot you can see in time of it closing (museums here close at about 6ish, the last tickets being sold an hour before closing time). I had not known that this was the burial place of Dostoevsky, among some of the most famous Russian composers. It's quite a bleak, shady cemetery (then again, I have never come out of a cemetery thinking it was bright and colourful) - morseo when you arrive there a little prior to five o'clock. And when you've gone by yourself - oo-er. Although I did not think it would be as bleak as it would soon become.
So, inside the cemetery, I saw the graves and headstones of famous musicians and painters, politicians and scientists. The cemetery is quite renowned in St Petersburg, though it's not very central. The grounds are solemn and silent, yet serene. The headstones are not something I've ever characteristically associate with gravestones (then again, there is probably not a technique exactly..- and I've never been to visit the graves of famous people), and the decoration is lovely - for example, the graves of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Karsakov (famous composers) are engraved with music score and golden musical notes, which I thought was quite touching. I might not even know the professions of some of the people here now, had they not been accompanied with illustrations and sculptures to depict what they had achieved in their lives. I liked this, because the fact that someone had spent a lot of time designing these just illustrates the pride that Russians have of their history - however grey and gruesome parts of its political past are, there is a sense of pride in their cultural side, its illustrations and sculptures meaning that their spirits and work will never be forgotten.
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